Melowese Richardson and Eric Holder’s selective enforcement of the law

In her excellent report on Melowese Richardson, the Ohio woman who in 2012 voted for Barack Obama not once, not twice, but six (count ‘em 6) times, J.E. Dyer observed:

[A]lthough she was sentenced to 5 years for her voting crimes, Richardson served less than 8 months before being released 10 days ago, reportedly because she suffers from bipolar disorder.

Most of us would probably agree that the prisons have better things to do than keep Melowese Richardson incarcerated.

Count me among those who agree, albeit reluctantly. While I firmly believe that if you do the crime, you should do the time, I will concede that Richardson is not a hardened criminal.

I’m not so sure the same can be said for Attorney General Eric Holder. A post at Breitbart by J. Christian Adams notes that in the 410 since Richardson admitted on camera that she committed multiple federal felonies, federal charges were never brought against her. Adams, some will recall, is the former Justice Department employee who accused the department of racial bias in 2009, following its dismissal of an open and shut case of voter intimidation against the New Black Panthers.

So why has Holder take no action in this case? Adams writes:

Federal law makes it a felony to vote more than once for President. In fact, 42 U.S.C. Section 1973i(e) subjects Richardson to twenty-five years in federal prison for her six votes for Obama.

[F]irst, the matter must involve a substantial federal interest; second, the prior prosecution must have left that interest demonstrably unvindicated; and third, applying the same test that is applicable to all federal prosecutions, the government must believe that the defendant’s conduct constitutes a federal offense, and that the admissible evidence probably will be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction by an unbiased trier of fact.

The incident is just the latest in a long line of decisions made by the AG that strongly suggest he follows a double standard, subscribing to one set of laws for “his people,” another for the rest of us.

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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